‘The staff have welcomed me very well’: Young prospect Rodrigo Mora begins pre-season training with Porto

Footballer Rodrigo Mora said on Tuesday that he is enjoying the start of pre-season training with the first team of FC Porto, to which he was promoted as the youngest of the seven players in the B II League team.

“It’s been a very intense few days, but the team has welcomed me and all the young people who have integrated very well. It’s been a very intense few days, very good days. I already knew the younger ones and now I’m getting to know the older ones. But we all get along very well and I’ve found an incredible group,” the 17-year-old attacking midfielder said, as quoted by the club.

Coach Vitor Bruno once again had 28 players available for the second day of FC Porto’s pre-season training, which took place behind closed doors on the pitches of the Centro de Treinos e Formação Desportiva PortoGaia in Olival, before continuing with the traditional medical and physical examinations.

“Learning is [FC] “Porto is always very intense and everyone gives everything. The big difference is the number of cameras, there are many more than I have in Team B, but I will certainly get used to it,” said Rodrigo Mora, who joined the Dragons in the 2016/17 season. He scored four goals in 28 games for Team B in the previous season.

The creative midfielder’s call-up to Porto’s first team comes a month after he finished as top scorer at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship with five goals in a competition Portugal lost 3-0 to Italy in the final. Limassol, Cyprus

“It was a very good European Under-17 Championship for me and the team, even though we didn’t win the title. It’s over, I’ve had a rest and now I want to have a great season at Porto,” concluded Rodrigo Mora, who has joined the senior team alongside Gonçalo Ribeiro, Diogo Fernandes, Gabriel Brás, Martim Cunha, Vasco Sousa and Gonçalo Sousa.

Spanish centre-back Marcano and Nigerian left-back Zaidu are on the Dragons’ clinical report, with six players on international duty and returning to action on Wednesday, again behind closed doors, from 10am.

FC Porto will work until the end of next week in Olival and will have a training camp from July 15 to 24 in Bad Tatzmannsdorf, Austria, playing seven preparatory matches before the official debut of the new season, where the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira against national champions Sporting on August 3 in Aveiro repeats the Portuguese Cup final.